Recycling Crayola Markers

I am working on getting a LOT of stuff gone through in hopes of making a serious dent in the quantity of stuff in our house.  While working on an ongoing project, during which I found several boxes of unopened Crayola Markers.  We have a great marker holder from Lake and Shore and we love it,  I think we are outgrowing it.

Will joyfully refilling it I began to muse at how wasteful markers are  :(  They always go in the trash, so we will be using up our stash, and buying no more.  After all I biked 6 miles with a backpack full of glass jars so that i would not need to use packaging to buy bulk foods at our local Whole Foods...

The used up markers sat on the counter while I procrastinated on throwing them in the trash, feeling guilty.  I decided to just check Crayola's website.  Guess what!?  They are #5 recycles!!!  This is not that recyclable, but it is recyclable in most communities.  There is a disclaimer here though, the nibs and ink reservoirs are not recyclable, so they would have to be removed first.  Crayola suggests recycling the caps, but has a disclaimer as to removing the nib and reservoir--please use this link to view the full disclosure and discussion.  Reader assumes all liabilities for their choices and actions.

I used the needle nose pliers to remove the nib, took about 2 seconds and then those did not open enough to get around that nub at the other end.  I grabbed the wire cutters and just used those to grab that nub and pull it out.  I was then able to take a pencil and poke the reservoir out of the tube. Please do this at your own discretion, reader must use his own judgement  before trying, and note that as Crayola warns,  you should probably just put it in the land fill.  I am only saying this is what I did and will do with the  rest of the markers we have left.  Oh, and don't let the kids find the reservoirs  ;)